Dread and Dead
by nataliiee-louise
Summary: Ruby had been dreading this day for weeks, at first the outbreak hadn't affected her. But now... All human/Zombie AU/RubyxPeter/hints of RubyxBelle. Rated T for so much death. Was written as a present for my friend, but I wanted to post it.
1. Chapter 1

Ruby had been dreading this day for weeks, the outbreak hadn't affected her or her own at first, but it took it's toll eventually. Mary Margaret was the first to go, her husband, David soon following her out of the land of the living. Their losses were hard on all of them, but MM had been Ruby's best friend, her confidant, the Eagle Two to her Eagle One.

For a while after losing MM and David, Ruby didn't know how to react, she didn't know how to handle loss well, but luckily she had her fiancé, Peter to back her up, to comfort her when things got tough, to show her that while loss was hard, focussing on the fact that they were still alive was more important until they found somewhere safe.

About 3 months into the outbreak, Ruby and her group stumbled across another group, people they knew from town, including Belle, Emma, Henry, Regina, and Mr Gold, who was on his last legs and would probably be subject to a mercy killing soon enough. He was slowing everyone down in a world where speed had suddenly become a necessity. Especially in the night, when the walkers were faster, meaner and ever so slightly harder to fight off. Gold would be next to go. And Belle - poor, sweet, innocent Belle who wouldn't hurt a fly - would be the one to shoot him point blank in the face just before the walkers could get him. I guess war, because it was war, changes everyone.

Ruby knew that their huge group would eventually become a hindrance, but she couldn't bring herself to make the split. She had to stay with Granny and Peter, but Belle had become the person she was closest to, and Belle wouldn't leave her group, which were beginning to become a problem, what with Henry always complaining and Regina always fighting with Emma over who was more skilled at killing walkers.

Everything seemed to right itself, however, after Whale went on a run, coming back with enough supplies for everyone to have a large meal and extra food to take on the go, causing everyone to stop being so grumpy for once, for everyone to get along. The friendly atmosphere lasted a few days to a week at most, before the truth shocked everyone back to reality. Even the most unexpected person could be caught unaware. Emma was dead.

The chaos that the loss of Emma caused was phenomenal. Fighting broke out between everyone in the group, loud fighting, drawing more walkers near. By the time they had all been dealt with, the ground at Ruby's feet shone with blood, both human, and walker.

Ruby had been dreading this day for weeks, at first the outbreak hadn't affected her or her own much. But now, now it had ruined her and her own. She stood, staring at the mess of bodies at her feet. Regina, Henry, Belle, Whale, Leroy, Ariel, all dead, all beginning to stir with life once more. Peter and Granny flanking her as she dispatched them, tears falling freely as she did so.

Luckily she had her fiancé, Peter to back her up, to comfort her when things got tough, to show her that while loss was hard, focussing on the fact that they were still alive was more important until they found somewhere safe.

Ruby had been dreading this day for weeks. She had finally lost everything. Peter had been hiding a bite, he was done for. Dying. The one thing, the one person keeping her going and hopeful was dying. He begged her endlessly, _kill me, kill me, kill me_. But she couldn't. She wouldn't. She couldn't see a life without Peter. He began to turn, starting to eat raw animals, and Ruby knew she had to give up and kill him, and she did. Slowly, carefully, she snuck over to where he was and stabbed a knife through his eye, cutting the connection from the brain to the rest of the body, ending his life, before opting out herself, leaving Granny as the only survivor. The only member of the group alive.


	2. Chapter 2 - Alternate Ending

div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Ruby had been dreading this day for weeks, at first the outbreak hadn't affected her or her own much. But now, now it had ruined her and her own. She stood, staring at the mess of bodies at her feet. Regina, Henry, Belle, Whale, Leroy, Ariel, all dead, all beginning to stir with life once more. Peter and Granny flanking her as she dispatched them, tears falling freely as she did so. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"As Ruby reached the one woman who she had grown to care so much about, her tears grew more fierce, she didn't know if she'd be able to kill her, she didn't want to. So as Belle began to stir, she raised her knife - hand made, sharpened wolf tooth blade - but she was not expecting a scream of fear. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"Dropping to the ground, Ruby laughed, she hadn't lost her best friend, Belle was just a fantastic actress with a knack for timings. This revelation was exactly what Ruby needed to keep going, Belle constantly by her side, growing closer as Peter drew further away. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"What Ruby discovered a few nights later was that Peter was hiding a bite. The fever had set in, he had mere hours to a day left beforeem /emhe turned, starting to beg Ruby,em kill me, kill me, kill me. /em/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"em /em/div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"She knew she couldn't do it, he was her fiancé and while she knew she had some feelings for Belle, she still loved him. She didn't kill the living and she knew it, coming up with a plan on how to handle breaking her one rule she lived by in the ruined world she lived in. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;""I'm sorry Peter." She muttered, plunging her blade through the moan's eye, cutting the connection from the brain to the rest of the body, killing him quickly and relatively painlessly. The killing was done quickly, the grief soon following emwhat had she done/em? /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"She kept camp in the same place for a few days, burying the body, wanting to give Peter a real goodbye, not just burning his body on a small fire, though she knew she should've moved on straight away, finally seeing how foolish she had been when Belle came to pay her a visit while Ruby was keeping watch. She knew she was being a sentimental fool when there was no time for it, no place for it. Human nature was the enemy now. She could finally see that, thanks to that stupid librarian with a heart of gold. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"When Ruby finally decided to move the camp the next day, she did so feeling lighter, she'd finally come to terms with everything - losing her friends, losing her family, her feelings for Belle - and she knew that while they were in a world gone to shit, if there were people like Belle, the world wasn't all bad, there was hope for all of them. /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;" /div  
div style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px; -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(130, 98, 83, 0.0980392); text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"She knew thinking like that was both cheesy and could lead to her death, but she didn't care. She could deal with death as long as she had the other brunette with her, fighting by her side while her gran protected their behinds. /div 


End file.
